[Discussion] I wanted to ask something regarding character appeal to players

BLIGHTBRINGER·10/13/2018, 11:06:25 PM·9 votes·9,900 views

##There are certain champions who don't get oftenly picked or played overall. So today I wanted to mention a few champions and ask whether or not you find them appealing, if yes or no, why...?


##RekSai Rek'Sai

Theme

She has a really unique theme, of being this Apex, merciless predator from a rare Void species called Xer'Sai. She is what other people would simply call a "land shark" but instead using water like all sharks do, she burrows herself beneath the ground and stalks her prey from a distance, while using tunnels to maneuver and keep up to the target, and when the time comes strike when they least expect it.

One other thing, she has the tendency to kill anything that moves.

Visuals

She looks absolutely terrifyingly awesome. Visually she looks exactly as you would imagine based off of just the sounds and the theme. She is an Apex predator because she isn't a regular Void based creature, looking at her features such as; her legs, hands, claws, mouth, teeth and everything else you could essentially get the impression that she was born from a combination of features from other Void based creatures.

One more thing to note is that she is actually very huge, much larger than what she is presented like in-game. She's not as huge as someone like Cho'Gath but she is still fairly large, a Rioter called her a "small T-Rex".

Sound

She is also unique because she doesn't speak like any other creature based characters, she makes loud growling/snarling/crackling/roaring/screeching/shrieking noises which can inflict fear for some.

Just listen for yourself...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER1CPu4y_bY

Gameplay

Gameplay wise, Rek'Sai can seem a bit simplish, most of her abilities consist of her just attacking her target with her claws and biting them for the most part. Which is where I begin to understand why some people might not get naturally attracted to playing her, as most people want to play something that is fun. But her tunnel mechanic, and the tremor sense when she is burrowed along with her ultimate still manage to keep her quite fun and unique, for me atleast.


I was going to do a similar length sized information for other champions, but I realised I didn't have much to say for them or that it would take too long to do each one. So here are the honorable mentions...

AurelionSol Aurelion Sol Bard Bard Ivern Ivern Heimerdinger Heimerdinger Malzahar Malzahar Ornn Ornn Skarner Skarner Viktor Viktor Varus Varus Twitch Twitch Yorick Yorick

49 Comments

RiotBioluminescence10/13/2018, 11:29:32 PM14 votes

Something I find interesting is that in some regions, a champion being described as "unique" in theme or appearance is highly valued, while in others it is actually considered a bit of a downside.

Many of the champs you've listed would come under the monster/unique descriptor for their appearances, imo.

You and Marshbouy both described Rek'Sai as unique - and from your tone, that was considered a positive. Some folks value other traits above 'uniqueness', which might factor in. (For example, they might value cuteness, or being relatable, or how sexy they find them, etc. more highly.)

Marshbouy10/13/2018, 11:13:55 PM8 votes

I find almost every single character that riot has created, with some exceptions, appealing from a lore and art standpoint. Rek'Sai is a shining example of that. She is visually unique, her animations are fantastic, and her voice over is awesome.

I don't pick her because I don't like her kit, not because I hate Rek'Sai's kit in particular but because I stopped liking playing AD bruisers at some point in my league of legends career.

TerraRising10/14/2018, 4:11:38 AM3 votes

Old Yorick appealed to me because he was the "Anti-Champion." Everyone else was this "paragon of virtue" or this "evil among evils." They were the ultimate examples of their professions or skills...

Then, you had Yorick Mori, a mortician/gravedigger who had greatness thrust upon him thanks to a magic shovel. Sure, he had helpers (his three ghouls) and he could make a clone that could survive death, but he did his work on his own.

My personal appeal comes from my family, a successive line of blue-collar workers, and there's no more blue collar job than a digger. Yeah, he was ugly. Yeah, he nearly destroyed the game when it came out. Yeah, every single fucking person at Riot hated him and anyone who liked playing him. But he was the champ that got me into League and kept me around for a long time.

New Yorick, conversely, has none of that. He's an adult version of that brat from The Sixth Sense that carries half a statue's face on his back and talks to something that makes the Alien Queen look like Scarlett Johansson. His "monk" story has nothing to do with his kit or his gameplay, and the people at Riot still hate him, anyone who plays him, and everyone who has ever cosplayed as him.

Tormentula10/14/2018, 12:02:22 AM3 votes

RekSai I find unique and cool as a character, the problem with rek'sai is from a gameplay standpoint riot didn't do well with her..

To elobrate, she was strictly a knock up bot with an advance vision mechanic that only pro players could utilize in a grouped setting properly. Overall she wasn't as satisfying back then. After her rework they did a great job but the problem is her ult is so inconsistent and counterable (sometimes even unecessary) that rek'sai feels like you're playing with a WIP released too soon. they should flesh out her rework a lot better.. even sacrificing damage on her R for consistency (make it work guaranteed like noc ult, idc if it did 1/64th of the damage it basically does none now anyway.)

AurelionSol Aurelion is another design I think riot didn't go all the way with. They set the bar reeeeeeeaaaallllly high with "literally god of creation in the form of a cosmic space dragon". Unforunately, he looks less like a dragon and more like a floating lizard with a really big baby head. He's beautiful but he doesn't really make you think a whole lot of him. Add in his gameplay is pretty awkward and you have a champ thats unappealing to the majority of players, both turned away from design and turned away from his mechanics.. but don't get me wrong, an aurelion main is probably the most frightening thing in the game.

Bard I think he's popular, not sure what to say really, he's fun, he's unique, his only problem is often people hate playing with him because if you're a first time bard you're basically a troll in most eyes since his roaming and ult can really be tilting if you don't utilize those properly.

Ivern Thematically he's not bad, he's unique, he's just not meta so nobody is playing him. Nobody enjoyed playing against him either. I'd even go back to permabanning him if his playrate went up even by 2%.

Heimerdinger again, he's popular but he's just not meta. His character is fine is just hard to make him meta without breaking him.

Malzahar He's very popular, he has a passionate group of mains that fought the MYMU battle with riot, a lot of them quit but he's still a really cool character.

Ornn Same as ivern, nothing wrong with his design, he's just not meta and when he is people don't enjoy it for long.

Skarner Giant scorpion can vary from people, some like playing as one, but frankly skarner has nothing in his gameplay that really brings out the scorpion thematic, like at all.. his E is the only scorpion like quality but its just an auto attack that procs a magical effect so its not like a sting that poisons something on its own or something. He doesn't feel like a scorpion, and his gameplay can be rather flawed in that you're only really playing him to flash ult something and run, its fun for a few seconds but rest of the time you're evelynning your keyboard with Q.

Viktor Popular, just not meta.

Varus Not sure why he's here, I think he's fine but his lore update really hurt his original character and why we liked him before I'll say that much.

Twitch rotates based on meta.. ADCs only have like 5 viable options at a time, when its his turn everybody usually loves him. His character is great too.

Yorick I think he's fine, he seems decently popular just not competitively picked much since splitpushing isn't the best strategy in the game atm and two champs can outclass that niche. Tryndamere Sion (literally running is down is just as effective lul)


Its less about monsters not being unique and appealing in character, I personally gravitate to monster like champs more often then more humanoid ones, but majority of the monsters are just unviable, its a coorelation of "look at all the lower loved monsters and look at their winrates vs. other champs". Like why play rek'sai when you can play camille and actually level 2 somebody (rek needs W and E to gank lanes, and without Q she can't clear decent at all, camille can gank after the first level up. )

Look at other monsters; Khazix Alistar Rengar Galio Renekton Nasus Zac TahmKench Nocturne, they're rewarding to learn because they're atleast meta for more then 2 patches at a given time. That's why you see people playing them and not Skarner who only shows up in a blue moon and then goes away immidiately. He wasn't suddenly being played because players remembered him, he was played because he was actually good until the game shifted in a way he was no longer good again.

ModThe Djinn10/14/2018, 2:18:02 AM3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Darkin Hybrid,realm=EUW,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=P22KWuEc,comment-id=,timestamp=2018-10-13T23:06:25.240+0000)RekSai Rek'Sai

Unique, sure. Appealing? Not really. She comes across as "just a monsters," and not a very interesting one at that.

AurelionSol Aurelion Sol

He amuses me, but still feels out of place both in-game and in-universe to me. David Bowie Star Dragon is funny, but I'm not ultimately a fan.

Bard Bard

I love Bard. He captures what I feel a Runeterra Celestial Power should capture -- mysterious, unknowable, and just a little out there. Hits every point that Aurelion Sol fails to hit.

Ivern Ivern

On the fence. His personality is amazing, his story less to to me. I'd like him more if he didn't feel so much like someone who got magical powers just because.

Ornn Ornn

Love everything about him.

Skarner Skarner

See Rek'Sai, but add a healthy dose of "last of his kind just 'cause." I have no connection here.

bte23410/14/2018, 6:51:53 AM2 votes

Hmm to be honest I quite like most of the champs that you listed lol. RekSai I never played jungle so I do not know if I would truly enjoy playing her or not, but her underground vision and tunnel mechanics seem really cool to play. Seeing the vibrations of enemies make me feel like Toph from ATLA (if only we have a truly blind champion to capture this feel). I also love that she has monster sounds; I wish other voidborns wouldn't speak English. AurelionSol His mechanics can be.. weird, but somehow satisfying. The fact that his gameplay revolves around keeping distance from enemies and dealing damages with passive makes me feel kinda superior (something like "I don't even need to touch you to kill you"). Not sure if that was intended xD Bard Really fun to play as and annoying to play with/against, mostly because no one has any idea what he is doing. He can also f*ck both the enemy team and your team, as his e and r can be used by/affect both teams. Perfectly describe his character who doesnt give a shit about the world. Ivern Again I don't play jungle, but I have played him in aram and I can see why people do not like playing him. The fact that he is supposed to deal little damage makes it unfun for some people, and he seems really weak during combat (his aa range is terrible without bush, his q is meh, w is debatable as using correctly and you might make the enemy adc miss a few aa, e is a shield and ult seems less satisfying to use than say Annie's or Shaco's). That's not to say no one likes playing him, but since he is too unique, only a few find him fun to play. Heimerdinger Really satisfying when you hit a skill and your cannons blow the hell out of your enemies. He is also quite unique in his playstyle so he is less popular than other mages. Malzahar I like his w, it feels like you open a gate to another dimension to summon demons and so on (or in this case voidlings). The rest of his kit is pretty meh. Ornn One of my favorite champions and definitely my favorite tank. He captures the blacksmith/Ram demigod feel perfectly; all of his kit feels satisfying to use. His character and sound effects are also awesome. Skarner His kit is really meh. It does not capture the feel of neither a scorpion nor a crystal creature. To be honest, his kit is pretty forgettable as the only thing I remember is the crystal pillar passive and his ult. Viktor Is he unpopular? Anyway, I don't think he captures the inventor archetype well (Heimerdinger's kit is a better example of an inventor). He also does not feel like an evolutionist who would change his body parts to become more efficient (in terms of evolution, Khazix is a better example, while Kaisa can also be one, though her kit feels more like adaptation). Despite all this, I kinda like playing him because his e is strangely satisfying to use. Varus I don't think he is that unpopular. However, I do think that his kit is kinda generic and does not feel like a demon archer (or specifically a Darkin archer). Darkins seem to be defined by life steal/health recovery, yet Varus has none of those (I can see why tho). Twitch One of the best feelings in this game is to appear out of nowhere, use a Twitch ult into a group of enemies and kill everyone. Sneaky sneaky. Yorick I don't know why some people say this champ is not fun to play. Summoning ghouls (I usually call them dogs) and command them to attack the enemy with your e is fun as hell lol. It feels like seeing your dogs to attack the mailman.

Warlord Dienekes10/13/2018, 11:43:53 PM2 votes

Rek’Sai. Yes, I find her appealing. I like monsters. She has a fairly monstrous look and her lurking of her prey gameplay is decently fun. Not a fan of some of her screams though.

Aurelion Sol. No, I don’t find him appealing. Boring gameplay, annoying personality, and he’s related to Targon. Though I am rooting for him to burn the whole thing down, so there is that.

Bard. Ambivalent toward. The chime noise doesn’t get annoying which is good. They easily could. And he’s such a strange concept I find it amusing. However I hate playing support and despise when the one on my team saves the enemy from my combo. Which always fucking happens.

Ivern. Not appealing. Don’t like jungle don’t like support. So a support jungle just doesn’t have much going for it. I’ve also never been interested in plant people. Treebeard was ok, but that’s about the high mark for them.

Heimerdinger. Ambivalent toward. In gameplay his preferred style promotes stagnation and creeping forward while setting up your area of control. A gameplay style I don’t find fun. As a character, meh, he’s just a big headed ferret thing. Or something.

Malzahar. Appealing. What can I say? Giving the enemy space aids is at least a little amusing. Other than that? Meh.

Ornn. Appealing. His personality is pretty much my favorite in the game. He reminds me of old!Poppy done right. Like she should have been instead of that naive thing we got after her rework. Anyway. Love the personality, don’t really care for the lore though.

Skarner. Appealing. Again. I like monsters. Pity I find his gameplay pretty dull. Those spire things were just a silly addition.

Viktor. Appealing. I enjoy shooting death lasers. Never even opened his new lore, but I’ve heard good things. I’m actually still somewhat amused by all that hullabaloo around him. How Riot originally wanted him to be this big villain, and yet they never had him do anything villainous so the fans thought of him as this underdog transhumanist. Then the Jayce release that was just there to piss on him. Man that was amusing in a face-palm kinda way.

Varus. Not appealing. Never cared for the shirtless angst archer. Then the lore rewrite happened in one of the dumbest ways. I mean I know they did an author saving throw later. But man, I don’t understand how Riot couldn’t see that train wreck coming. Since I also don’t really care about the Darkin. He’s now only amusing as a reminder of that fiasco. I’m glad we finally have homosexual characters but there had to have been a better way of introducing them.

Twitch. Rat with crossbow. Fuck it, appealing. Keep on murdering people with your stench you weirdo.

Yorick. Ambivalent. He exists. He’s healthier now than his old version. Wish he’d remained ugly. But I didn’t play him then and I don’t play him now. So, really nothing to say.

Jerry SeinfeId10/14/2018, 1:22:35 PM2 votes

honestly she's just not very interesting to play. she's not strong and her tremor sense feels weird to me. you have to learn her and adapt to the champ for little payoff. She also just looks like a monsterhunter type of monster to me, ya know the big beast you are hunting instead of playing as. She's also the only champ who doesn't talk i think, thus there's little real personality to her. She's a wild beast and nothing more.

AurelionSol is popular visually, just not gameplaywise. Bard is popular in every way afaik, just hard to get good at. Ivern got gutted, has little control over the game and only has his meme looking ass visuals to make up for it. Heimerdinger the donger has a way too specific playstyle causing few to be interested, most people also get frustrated playing against him and will hate him for that. Malzahar is popular afaik. Ornn has the least appealing character i can think of tbh, all he is is some demi god that acts like some 9 gag brat "hmph i don't like people, i'd rather stay inside alone" which makes him so boring to me. Skarner outdated champ. his passive seems like a balancing issue as he'd be extremely strong in his area but week outside of it. Viktor is one of the most popular lorewise i think, doesn't have much going for him after dominating lcs for a while. didn't even get victorious viktor for it, so that should say enough. Varus fairly popular a little while back, has the added 2 gay boys and a demon meme going for him too now. Twitch best VO in the game. Yorick not very reliable as a champ imo. he's a beast if maiden is up, can't do much without her.

WindLord707010/14/2018, 5:25:13 PM2 votes

yorick was way cooler before his rework. I like the gameplay of both yoricks but when it came down to appearance and lore old yorick was so much better.

Hayaishi210/18/2018, 5:37:22 PM2 votes

The problem in Varus kit imo is 3 things.

His passive is not powerful enough for a conditional andunreliable passive. Why doesn't it give AD? Why doesnt it lower his cooldowns? It has so much potential.

IMO it shoukd give attack speed like it does and lower his abilities cooldowns by X.

And his E, while i like the rain of arrows concept the ability is lackluster. It has shit damage, shit utility it does nothing well.

And his itemization. Varus is not balanced around crit/on hit/full ad he is all of them and neither of them. This is why he's always had itemization issues. Right now rageblade is king but if we didnt have on hit Varus would be garbage if he was forced on crit. (like he has been in the past)

Theorex10/16/2018, 3:49:07 AM1 votes

Personally, I would still play Malzahar, if he wasn't ruined. I play to climb and feel like I am actually contributing by having pressure. But Malz no longer does that.

Cetri10/14/2018, 4:19:18 PM1 votes

From a design standpoint, I love all of the champions you listed. The more "inhuman" champs tend to be my favorites.

I only play as a few of them, though, but of the ones I do play, I love to play as them. The Donger was my first "main," and Yorick my second. I play ARAM more than anything else, but I generally pick one of those two when I have a choice. Out of the ones I don't like to play as, like A-Sol and Bard, it's because I'm super sucky with their playstyle, not out of any dislike for the champ. The "meta" aspect has never and will never be a concern for me; I don't give a shit whether a champ is "good," I care whether I like the champ or not. I'm bored by champs like Darius, Rengar, and Lee Sin, and I would rather play a champ I'm bad at than them.

Linna Excel10/19/2018, 2:41:56 AM1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Darkin Hybrid,realm=EUW,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=P22KWuEc,comment-id=,timestamp=2018-10-13T23:06:25.240+0000)

##RekSai Rek'Sai

Visuals

She looks absolutely terrifyingly awesome.

I think she looks too alien and weird. I think riot went too far with her design and for a number of people that hurts her aesthetics.

a Rioter called her a "small T-Rex".

Tyrannosaurids were pretty small early on. About the size of a medium dog. That's before a pedantic comes in and starts talking about how small juveniles of the T-Rex species was.

Gameplay

Gameplay wise, Rek'Sai can seem a bit simplish, most of her abilities consist of her just attacking her target with her claws and biting them for the most part. Which is where I begin to understand why some people might not get naturally attracted to playing her, as most people want to play something that is fun. But her tunnel mechanic, and the tremor sense when she is burrowed along with her ultimate still manage to keep her quite fun and unique, for me atleast.

Some reasons I don't play her

  1. She's a diver/hard engage but her ult is an execute. That's kind of a raw deal for a jungler.
  2. She falls off kind of hard between 25-40 minutes.
  3. It looks like she needs 3 damage items, but can't reliably get there.
  4. I just don't like the mechanical play of her and the burrowed/unburrowed states. It seems like riot has too many junglers who have alt skill sets.
DeadUnborn10/14/2018, 5:25:53 PM1 votes

there are two reasons. One is that for some reason most people prefer playing humanoid characters.

The other one is that her gameplay is more strategic than tactical. Great Rek Sai players are rewarded from smart map rotations, using tremor to counter jungle, smart gank pathing and clever tunnel positioning for faster clears. None of that is flashy or tactical combat (keeping in mind for a long time her ult was super strategic for split pushing, lowering her adoption rate by players even more).

I love playing her, but she isn't for most people

Bârd10/14/2018, 9:00:17 PM1 votes

Bard

He doesn't have mass appeal for a few reasons.

Theme

He definitely has a theme, but to anybody who isn't intimately familiar with his lore it would seem that he's just a generic "mysterious entity". That isn't very far off, but it's not much to go off of.

Visuals

A very interesting design, but if you aren't used to him he'll just look floaty and weird.

Sound

I personally love the sounds Bard makes, just because of the relaxing mood they give off (especially when gathering chimes), but they don't really give off much of a personality aside from being slightly whimsical.

Gameplay

Very fun, but also very difficult. Requires a lot of practice to simply not be dead weight, and his capabilities when played to max potential aren't immediately obvious when you look at his kit.

There are a certain group of people who love Bard for all his quirks, but it's not exactly a design that attracts hordes.

Drugoth10/15/2018, 2:59:07 AM1 votes

Using Evelynn compared to RekSai for instance:

I find it more appropriate that Rek'sai get a kind of passive stealth added to her while she is tunneled, whereas it makes a little less sense thematically to Evelynn because in her lore the entire concept of her demon is using a pleasing appearance to lure her prey.

Things like this are a little confusing sometimes, but I dunno.

Zapzya10/14/2018, 2:49:20 AM1 votes

I'm going to just talk about Aurelion as the rest of them, I find neither exciting nor boring, just ok. Except Rek'Sai, I would play her more if I was a good jungler or could be bothered to practice jungling, everything you described I agree with.

Aurelion Sol was first introduced to me after I had stopped playing for about 18 months or so, and in one of my first games back I found my mid laner absolutely dominating on him. His star mechanic intrigued me, and I wanted to play him, but I stopped playing for another 6-8 months or so. When I came back, I saw him and decided to pick him up. It was at this point I realized he was nerfed and not OP anymore, but eh. He had some of the most stunning visuals I had ever seen, and it was really fun to try and use the stars, especially when CSing.

Of course, this only lasted for a game or two before I vsed an assassin and never wanted to touch the guy again. But I kept going back to him, since I honestly couldn't give up playing a dragon. I think I played him 90% of my games back then, and I didn't want to touch him at points, but my friends would coerce me into it: "Go on, you know you want to" "hit me up with that A Sol" and so forth. I would groan and do it. After a bit of time and advice from guides online, he finally clicked. After this I never looked back.

At some point I realized I had 100k mastery on him. I don't play him as much anymore (mainly cause losing GLP's minion piercing reduces his safety by a LOT) but he will always remain in my heart as my favorite champion. His visuals are so pretty, his base skin honestly looks almost better than his other skins. His voice acting is sooooo good, I could listen to him act pompous and self important all day, because he actually is a godlike being, why wouldn't he act like that? Most people say his gameplay isn't satisfying, but I dare those people to watch their star pass through a bush, hear a small "boop" and then "an enemy has been slain" and not cackle maniacally. Against assassins, I never want to play this champ, but anyone else and I could throw stars all day.

SkyAce10/14/2018, 2:40:58 AM1 votes

Since rek'sai is the most talked about in this post i feel i need to comment. I have played a lot of rek'sai, and i personally think her kit is fine as is. If you are playing rek in a damage build you have to be much more mindful of how you go in. You have a large amount of kill potential, and late game can become an one shot assassin on anyone squishy. Yes her ult can be dodged, but what spells are you using to dodge generally a flash for a rek ult is worth.

Spideraxe10/14/2018, 2:36:24 AM1 votes

I remember reading an article a while back mentioning that despite being relatively boring, players will almost always choose humans or as humanoid as possible characters over the more monstrous cast which I think plays a part in the lack of appeal in like Rek’Sai and Skarner. I feel like the thematics of the champions listed aren’t really super appealing compared to like shadow ninja or samurai when they have to go against scientist or monk